Milestones
by mrserikkarimloo86
Summary: Tony has been spending a lot of time in the lab lately, and Steve is upset he's missing quality time with him and Peter. Just normal Domestic Avengers stuff. Thanks theyoungerwinchester on Tumblr for the prompt.


As the bright sun of early morning creeps into the bedroom of Steve and Tony, Steve hears Peter waking up on the baby monitor. He rolls over to wake Tony, with it being his turn, but he finds nothing but a cold, empty space where his boyfriend should be laying.

_That's the fourth time this week_, Steve thinks to himself as he gets out of bed. After throwing on a pair of boxers, he quickly walks to Peter's room. When he walks in Peter stops crying and puts his arms out for his daddy to pick him up. Steve smiles and walks over to his son and takes him out of his crib.

After giving Peter a quick change, he walks to the elevator and rides it down to their "family" level. There they had the kitchen, the living room, dining room and Peter's play room. Steve was hoping Tony had just gotten up to fix the three of them breakfast, but as the doors of the elevator slid open, the floor was silent and empty. Steve's face immediately fell. Why has Tony been spending so much time in his lab lately?

Peter looks up at Steve, smiles and puts his little arms around Steve's neck, obviously sensing his daddy is upset. This snaps Steve out of it as he smiles and gives the little guy a hug back and carries him into the kitchen for some breakfast.

After feeding Peter his mashed banana and milk, Steve cleans him up and carries him down to the basement where Tony's lab/workshop is. He sees Tony's working with the blow torch so he knocks first so he won't startle him. Tony doesn't hear him, probably has his music turned up as usual, so Steve has JARVIS turn down the music and he tries again. This time Tony turns around, smiles and invites them in. As Steve walks through the door, Peter is squirming trying to get into his other dad's arms.

"I don't think that's such a good idea, sport," Tony says, looking at himself, covered in sweat and oil. He walks closer to them and gives Steve a kiss, but he can tell something isn't right about Steve. "Is something wrong?"

"Yes. Why have you been coming down here so early? Not only that, but you also stay down here most of the day. We miss you," Steve says, nodding down at Peter as he says those last three words.

"I just have a lot I want to work on lately. I'm almost done with a few of them and then I'm all yours."

"But what if you find another project after finish these? Then it'll just be more mornings I wake up alone, more of Peter's milestones you'll miss and more nights I spend alone."

"Listen I'm sorry I've been working so much to make OUR lives better, but it's what I have to do."

"You don't HAVE to do anything. We already have plenty of money set aside. Enough to last two lifetimes. Plus I'm sure spending some time with your family shouldn't take too much time out of work. Just a day or two where we can take Peter out so he can have some fun with both of us."

"We have plenty of time to do that."

"Not while he's this young. Plus what if you miss on his first words or first steps? How would you feel missing out on those because you wouldn't take time off work?"

That last comment got Tony thinking. What if he did miss those milestones? What kind of father would he be then? Steve was right about all of that. Taking time off really wouldn't do too much damage. But what he couldn't tell Steve is this is where he came when he was stressed and just wanted to clear his head. And lately he's had a lot on his mind. The fact that he was responsible for a whole other human being was just a lot for him to take in. He could barely take care of himself let alone a whole other human being. But that's when he realized something. He was turning into his father. And that was the one thing he promised he was never going to do to his son.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't think about how much it would affect you and Peter. How about this? The three of us go to the zoo, we have lunch in Central Park and at the end of the day, you and me have a romantic dinner at home."

Steve relaxes and smiles at him, being kind of mad at himself for never being able to stay mad at Tony. It was probably those brown eyes that he fell in love with the first time he saw them. He takes a step towards Tony, close as they could be with Peter in between them.

"That sounds perfect," he says as he leans in to give Tony a kiss.

"Dad," Peter says just after they kiss.

Steve and Tony freeze and just stare at their son.

"What did you say?" Tony asked.

"Dad," Peter replied, pointing at Tony.

Tony could feel his eyes starting to water up. He looked up at Steve whose eyes were starting to turn red also.

"He's talking about you," Steve said, smiling from ear to ear.

"He is, isn't he?"

Steve hands Peter over to Tony and the three of them leave the lab a happy family.


End file.
